Our fourth entry in the DE History Project comes to us from Spain. Christine reminds us that not all DEs are the “calm, thorough, steady people” that we may assume them to be. There are DEs with those traits, to be sure, but there are also those, like her, who prefer the excitement of the rush schedule.
In my experience, these “high-energy” editors tend to focus on the Big Picture, helping authors to straighten out their narratives and arguments but leaving the minor lapses for copyeditors to mop up. These editors remind me of script doctors called in to “save” Hollywood films at the eleventh hour. They thrive on pressure; they can midwife the “instant book” that a publisher requires in time for Election Day or some other major event.
Christine’s entry is a valentine to the work of freelance editing. She reminds me why I got into the business. An in-house manager now, I’m a bit jealous of her, and not only because of her access to all those delicious Spanish dishes.
- Scott Norton
- I am an editor at the University of California Press and author of the first full-length handbook ever published on the subject of developmental editing.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
My Sprinting Personality Turns Out to Be Perfect for the Type of DE I Do
Entry 4: November 21, 2009
By Christine
I started working in publishing out of college, first as a sales rep, then as an acquisitions editor. I worked in-house until my husband finished grad school and got his first job in Spain. It had never occurred to me to try the “other” editor jobs; in my company it all seemed very clear who was cut out for what. The developmental editors I worked with were very calm, thorough, steady people and I tend more towards high energy for short sprints.
Our plan had been to stay in Spain for one year and that I would not work, but it was quite boring and lonely, so I started teaching English. One of my students worked at an EU organization and hired me to be on site 2 hours a day to edit the speeches and essays and articles her staff was responsible for preparing. They all spoke English, but as a second (or third, or fourth) language, and everything they produced had to be written in English. This morphed into more editing work, and then one day a friend of mine who is a professor in the US asked me to edit a chapter she was writing for a book. She then recommended me to another friend, and from there my business was born.
My high-energy sprinting personality turns out to be perfect for the type of developmental editing I do because it seems everything arrives a week before the deadline. I suppose I am not a traditional DE as I get things long after they should have been organized. I am like a hired gun DE, taking something complexly academic, convoluted, and generally written by a non-native English speaker and turning it into something readable, understandable, and compelling.
I love the work. Things are constantly new. I learn about all sorts of things: translation of literature from Persian, cultural politics, the sociology of the Lebanese in Mexico, the history of aerospace technology in Spain. I work on theses, dissertations, articles, essays, and book manuscripts and the occasional business document or presentation. I have three little children and can work around their schedules. I have to be very organized to get it all done but I like being busy and the people I work with are also extremely pressed for time, so there is a sense of collegiality though I do all my work over the internet.
By Christine
I started working in publishing out of college, first as a sales rep, then as an acquisitions editor. I worked in-house until my husband finished grad school and got his first job in Spain. It had never occurred to me to try the “other” editor jobs; in my company it all seemed very clear who was cut out for what. The developmental editors I worked with were very calm, thorough, steady people and I tend more towards high energy for short sprints.
Our plan had been to stay in Spain for one year and that I would not work, but it was quite boring and lonely, so I started teaching English. One of my students worked at an EU organization and hired me to be on site 2 hours a day to edit the speeches and essays and articles her staff was responsible for preparing. They all spoke English, but as a second (or third, or fourth) language, and everything they produced had to be written in English. This morphed into more editing work, and then one day a friend of mine who is a professor in the US asked me to edit a chapter she was writing for a book. She then recommended me to another friend, and from there my business was born.
My high-energy sprinting personality turns out to be perfect for the type of developmental editing I do because it seems everything arrives a week before the deadline. I suppose I am not a traditional DE as I get things long after they should have been organized. I am like a hired gun DE, taking something complexly academic, convoluted, and generally written by a non-native English speaker and turning it into something readable, understandable, and compelling.
I love the work. Things are constantly new. I learn about all sorts of things: translation of literature from Persian, cultural politics, the sociology of the Lebanese in Mexico, the history of aerospace technology in Spain. I work on theses, dissertations, articles, essays, and book manuscripts and the occasional business document or presentation. I have three little children and can work around their schedules. I have to be very organized to get it all done but I like being busy and the people I work with are also extremely pressed for time, so there is a sense of collegiality though I do all my work over the internet.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
